The present invention relates in general to vases, and more specifically, to flexible vases suitable for holding flowers or rooting plant stems and suspendible from smooth surfaces.
Typical vases are bulky, heavy, and expensive. At the time of purchasing flowers, such vases cannot be sold with the flowers without adding appreciable cost and difficulty of shipment.
In addition, typical vases are not suitable for use in rough, unstable environments, such as in a moving vehicle. Such vases would likely tip over from the vehicle""s acceleration or encounter with rough terrain, spilling all the vase""s contents and, depending upon vase""s construction, shattering the vase.
Certain receptacles, which could possibly serve as vases, have metal tabs, rings or hooks that are used to hang the receptacles from walls or other suitable structures. Once such receptacles are placed in position, however, they cannot be removed or relocated very easily. For instance, in order to suspend such receptacles from walls it is further necessary to have a hook or nail provided upon the wall to receive the receptacle""s tab or ring. Once in place, the receptacle cannot be removed without leaving an unsightly hook or nail. In addition, the unsightly nail or hook cannot be removed without leaving a mark on the wall, because the nail or hook must be driven or embedded into the wall. Besides not being able to easily remove or relocate such receptacles, many wall surfaces are ill-suited for such receptacles. For instance, it may be impossible to drive a nail or hook into a wall constructed of tile, glass, thin plastic, etc. without cracking or shattering the wall.
The present invention provides a flexible vase that is easily and removably suspendible from a smooth surface. A preferred embodiment of the vase includes a watertight pouch that has an upwardly facing open mouth for receiving flowers into the pouch. The pouch is comprised of two generally planar wall portions that are made of flexible, water impervious material and that are disposed so as to face each other. To form the pouch, the peripheries of the wall portions are sealed together other than at the mouth, which is left open. One wall portion may extend beyond the other at the open mouth to form a flap. The flap has an button hole with a corresponding flexible hole periphery. The vase also includes an all-flexible suction cup that has a cup side and a button side opposite the cup side. The cup side is adapted for mounting to a smooth surface. The button side has a shaft extending axially from the cup side that terminates in a button which has a cross-section greater than that of the shaft. The shaft and button may be formed integrally with the cup side. The pouch is removably downwardly suspendible from the suction cup by stretching the periphery over the button to surround the shaft. Since the pouch and the cup are both comprised of flexible materials, their connection creates an all-flexible union.
In an alternative embodiment, the pouch has a card pocket comprised of a layer of flexible material that is sealed to one of the pouch""s wall portions. The pocket has an open mouth for receiving a card into the space between the layer and the one of the wall portions.
In yet another alternative embodiment, a sheet of the vases is conveniently provided on a roll. Each vase has a pouch that is comprised of sealed inner and outer plies of a flexible water impervious material. The pouch has an upwardly open mouth for receiving flowers into the interior space between the sealed plies. Each pouch has at least two laterally opposed edges, and each is connected to at least one other pouch along one edge by a readily severable joint. These connections form a rollable sheet of vases. One ply of each vase extends beyond the other ply at the open mouth to form a flap that has a button hole with a corresponding button hole periphery. The pouch is removably downwardly suspendible from its button hole periphery.